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After the buzz from the 1988 run-and-gun shooter for the Nintendo that was Contra, Konami decided to produce a sequel in 1990 for the Nintendo. Our heroes Bill and Lance are back shooting up anything in their path to take down more aliens. Is their adventure more or less the same as the original? Bill and Lance are back for this Super C review!
Super C Plot:
It’s been one year since Bill Rizer and Lance Bean took down the evil Red Falcon terrorist organization and its alien leaders. The dangerous duo is called back into action, this time they must infiltrate an allied base as their brothers in arms have been possessed by aliens who are back with a vengeance and a new mutation to their bodies.
Let’s turn to the manual for more about… lemonade? Yeah, that’s right!
“Sipping cold lemonade with a couple of native lovelies. (Bill – Codename: “Mad Dog”) and (Lance – Codename: “Scorpion”) relax on a Rio beach and boast of how they destroyed the vile alien warmonger, Red Falcon. Little do they know that Red Falcon didn’t flee with his pointed tail between his legs. Instead, he tactically retreated to round up ruffians of the universe, friends from all walks of war, to mount a second assault on planet Earth.
One of these new recruits is Jagger Froid, a demented alien from the Black Hole Galaxy, who dishes out punishment with a laser-sharp tongue. Red Falcon has also shuttled in The Babalu Destructoid Mechanism, a giant alien attack tank, which was the primary weapon used to disintegrate the innocent solar system of Tralala.
But the genius behind Red Falcon’s Earth-conquering concept is his plan to have thousands of intergalactic warriors seep into the brains of the U.S. Army. It’s a mind contamination trick that has already taken command of U.S. forces at Fort Fire Storm.
How do we know that our soldiers have been brain trashed? You can see it in their eyes.
Now, if Mad Dog and Scorpion fail to recuperate from their months on the beach in time to destroy Red Falcon’s G.I. fortified Hate Nest, his sinister scheme will permeate the world’s mightiest power (nuclear missile silos included).
And if that happens, we’ll all be pushing up daisies.”
Once you defeat Red Falcon again you’ll be rewarded with a boring helicopter cutscene and credits! Let’s head to the gameplay portion of this Super C review.
Super C Gameplay:
If I wanted to be perfectly honest about Super C aka Super Contra, I would just copy my review of the original Contra and paste it in this blank space. Super C is almost an exact replica of the original, much like how Mega Man 1-6 are pretty much the same game with different bosses, Super C is the same game as Contra except for different bosses. My Super C review won’t differ much.
The gameplay is just as difficult as the last Contra with bullets, soldiers, and aliens flying everywhere on the screen. I actually found my Super C review to be slightly easier than its prequel. It only took me a little over an hour to beat. I had a few struggles in some boss battles, but that was to be expected. Once again you can choose between a variety of guns and power-ups, but I always stuck to the gun that sprayed bullets in different directions as I found it the most effective.
The first boss was a helicopter controlled by soldiers which made sense since the enemies are your former pals now controlled by aliens. After the first boss, I was surprised that the next level didn’t change to the “3D” vertical levels like the first Contra. I was a little bit disappointed because I enjoyed the challenge that they gave me. Instead, Super C has a few top-down view levels. Contra almost seemed like the sequel instead of Super C with the missing “3D” levels.
The next few bosses gave me a bit more of a challenge for my Super C review. There was a tank with three soldiers on it, a spider-walking tank, and a typical contra-style wall with targeting guns with weak points for you to hit. The wall is always tough to destroy because of the moving targets and bullets coming at you. You can never stay in one place and have to memorize the pattern of about eight different things on the screen. What’s up with all of these walls in the Contra series? I’ve never played a video game series with killer walls all over the place and it’s not just boss fights. You’ll be running through a level and small walls will pop up from the ground with mounted guns and start popping off at you. There are walls you’ll have to break through in order to advance and there are walls with spikes too. Good thing Bill and Lance are always balls to the wall.
After having no problem with the first four or five levels, things quickly changed on the topdown levels where enemies came at you from every angle. It was best just to find one path and walk up to it instead of walking all over the screen hoping to dodge every alien. Once you get into the base of the aliens, you realize you’re in for a fight. There was this “ant hole” level where these little bugs would crawl out of holes in the walls. There must have been 10 at a time coming at me, I died often but finally managed to get through it by sticking to one side of the screen and mashing the fire button.
The final level is actually quite fun, and the boss was tough. Some of the bosses from Contra and Super C are so bizarre. They rival the crazy combination of bosses found in Altered Beast. On the final level, the ceiling collapses on you and you have to hide under stable sections while aliens chase you until you reach the final boss which looks like a giant stone statue that shoots baby spiders at you. Major bonus points in my Super C review for unique bosses.
Memories:
Like the original Contra, I remember playing this at work. (Whoops) Sometimes I had significant downtime and did my best to fill it with video games that I knew were beatable within a few hours. Super C tested my patience but I was able to complete my Super C review in about an hour. I’m not a pro at it like some of the gamers on YouTube that beat the game in 15 minutes but I thought I did pretty well for myself.
Super C Review Score:
Super C should really be called “Same C” because it’s just like the original Contra. That’s not bad because the first Contra was a solid game packed with action. The sequel doesn’t add anything, but it also doesn’t make any fatal mistakes by trying to be something it’s not. At the end of the day, Konami just wants to make money and the first Contra made them money, so why change the formula?
You just can’t get rid of these bad motherfuckers in Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, the two most intimidating and somersaulting dudes in the universe.
Let’s see…what did I give Contra for a score…a 7.7? Okay, that sounds about right for Super C then too.
Super C scores a 7.7 out of 10.
What would you write in your Super C review? Do you think Contra and Super C are too similar? What was your favorite boss to fight? What’d you think of the top-down levels? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!
Tiger Chainsaw 